Endurance

Weaving a new narrative for survival

Sunday, October 29, 2006

For All Humanity

Our elders, our chiefs, say that the gods made the world, that they made the men and women of corn first. And they specifically put the heart of corn in them. But the corn ran out and some men and women didn’t get a heart. The color of the earth ran out, and they began to look for other colors. Then, the heart of corn touched people who are white, red or yellow. So there are people here who don’t have the dark color of indigenous people, but they have the heart of corn, so they are here with us.

And that was the message that we were giving to the rest of the world: that in this country and on this planet, one had to fight and be willing to die to be able to survive.

They, those who are up above, have already shown for hundreds of years, for centuries, that the only thing that they have done has been to destroy the earth. Now we have to take the land’s destiny and its defense into our hands. Don’t leave it one minute more in the hands of the rich. We have to do it, not just for our Indian peoples, but for all humanity.--Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos

Friday, October 06, 2006

To Meet Our Needs

Please consider our recent overture to initiate public discussion about the process of criminality that hampers our ability to formulate sound policy, no matter what our point of view. The reason we chose the examples we did, was to illustrate how white-collar crime robs us of the opportunity to resolve differences and build relationships of respectful coexistence despite our variant cosmologies.

Conflict and confrontation are (as always) still necessary, but if we can agree to protect our common wealth from criminal predation, then we will at least have the resources to meet our needs. It's when they are no longer available that civil society breaks down, and violence becomes an acceptable alternative to discussion.